Manaea holds Boston in check again
BOSTON — The Red Sox, baseball’s besthitting home team, were unlikely candidates to be no-hit twice in one season by the same pitcher.
Boston got its fair share of hits against Sean Manaea on Monday, only to be outpowered by the A’s, who hit three homers in a 6-5 victory at Fenway Park.
“Pretty tough place to pitch,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You’re not going to go out and throw a no-hitter against them, but all in all, he left with the lead in this ballpark — that’s a good job.”
Manaea, who no-hit Boston on April 21 at the Coliseum, gave up four runs for his third start in a row, but only three were earned Monday because of Matt Chapman’s rare poor defensive day. The A’s third baseman made a throwing error in the third and a fielding error in the sev-
enth.
Oakland got contributions from all areas of the lineup. Matt Joyce, the No. 2 hitter, hit a two-out solo homer in the third off Rick Porcello; No. 8 hitter Jonathan Lucroy kicked in a two-out, two-run double in the fourth, and No. 9 hitter Dustin Fowler followed with a runscoring triple, the rookie’s first major-league RBI.
In the sixth, Matt Olson hit a solo shot, No. 5 for him, and Khris Davis did the same in the eighth, his 12th of the year.
“You have to do that,” Melvin said of the A’s adding on late runs. “If you think you’re going to score three or four runs and just hold on, that’s not the case. These guys in late innings are really tough; it’s when they get their best at-bats, and they kept fighting back.”
And so they did: Boston’s Rafael Devers hit one out in the sixth, as did J.D. Martinez in the eighth off Yusmeiro Petit.
Blake Treinen worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his seventh save and lowered his ERA to 0.93.
Quietly, Lucroy is coming on strong. He didn’t have a full spring, signing with the A’s as a free agent halfway through camp, and he started the season by batting .239 with one RBI in his first 13 games.
Since then, Lucroy is batting .333 in 19 games.
“Really consistent,” Melvin said before the game. “You look up and he’s hitting over .290. It seems like he’s gotten more comfortable after a short spring. … He’s swinging the bat well for us.”
Six of Lucroy’s past 12 hits and eight of his past 16 are doubles, including his key two-out, two-run double in the fourth Monday.
“Doubles are something I’ve always done in my career,” he said. “Hitting the ball hard on a consistent basis is my goal. I’ve done it for a long time, and I know what I’m capable of. It’s just having that confidence and going up there and having good at-bats. My mechanics are right and I’m seeing the ball well; I’ll just try to keep at it, keep working.”
The A’s have won each of their past three games against Boston.
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser